Could Your Collagen Drink Be Harming You?

I could be so wrong, but here you will see some of my thoughts and considerations on why a collagen drink did not work for me. If you have any experience on this, please enlighten me and my readers in the comment box under the post.

Rejuvenaed collagen shots

Months ago I got sent a collagen drink in powder form by Rejuvenated. I totally forgot about the received bag, but when I came across it at the back of my cupboard, I got very excited and set off to try the collagen shots out immediately.

Collagen is the main structural protein of various connective tissues in animals. Collagen drinks are supposed to help us rejuvenate our skin, hair and nails, make nails firm and strong, improve the tone and texture of our skin and so on. Lots of benefits, so what's not to like?

All excited, I opened the pack and started to drink collagen shots - once a day one hour before bedtime, as instructed. A couple of weeks later after starting to drink collagen shots I noticed that my nails became thicker and whiter, which I normally consider a sign of health. My hair seemed to look shinier too. Although my nails looked better, I noticed that they started to split and became brittle. Very soon, a few of my nails broke from very mild impact and I had to cut them all short as they looked ridiculous. This does not often happen to me. My nails are fairly strong generally and I often cut them shorter simply due to convenience, but now I had to cut them really short, much shorter than it is usual for me.

Liquid collagen drink

I did not understand what was going on, I thought I was going crazy. I googled to see if there was any chance that collagen drinks could make my nails brittle. What I saw was the opposite! Every site claimed that the protein in collagen makes nails strong and stops them from being brittle, so how did the opposite happen to me then?

We all know how diet affects our lives. Good diet can make us look and feel better, bad diet can cause us various problems starting with constipation, bloating, lethargy, lack of concentration, stomach aches and others. Both hair and nails are made from the same protein, called keratin, so it makes sense that similar diet choices would affect them both, says dermatologist Jessica Wu on Huffington post. She claims that a lot of people come to her practice complaining about thinning hair and brittle nails. One of the main culprits, she says, is that people eat too much fish, which contains high levels of mercury. High levels of mercury can lead to hair loss. Also, people who do not eat enough of protein can have hair loss and brittle nails.

Collagen shots by Rejuvenated

Some fish has higher levels of mercury, especially those that are higher in the food chain such as marlin, tuna, shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish and northern pike. Also, fish that is older and larger contains more mercury, which is accumulated throughout their lives. Weak flaky nails that tear and split easily is one of the many signs of mercury poisoning, so could I have been harming myself with my collagen shots? I can't answer that, but the company concerned claims that their collagen has only tiny traces of harmful metals, not more than any other fish products that are considered good to our diets. Nevertheless, the quality of collagen is important and, if you are to try out this drink, you must do further research on which collagen drink to buy as they are not all equal. Rejuvenated does not provide any information on what their collagen drink is made of. The package states that it is made of marine collagen with a lot of extras added to it.

If anyone wants to know more about Rejuvenated collagen shots, I will tell you that they taste good and they don't smell of fish, but this is trivial if it doesn't do what it is supposed to do or, even worse, maybe it's causing me more harm than good?

If anyone has any explanation as to why my nails started to split and became brittle, please let me know in the comment box below. I would love to hear the answer.

Have you ever tried any collagen drinks? What effect did it have on your skin, hair and nails? Would you like to try a collagen drink?

Updated on 2 February 2016

Addressing the company 's mentioned in the post concerns I would like to add the following words provided by them:

"The fish used for Collagen Shots is ethically sourced from free running fresh water and of European origin. All production runs are produced to European Food Safety Association standards and have certifications of analysis.  Our products are 100% natural without additives or fillers, we go to great lengths to source the very best ingredients possible."